In this city that never sweeps, the omens, like the panhandlers, are everywhere.
It is October, traditionally the favorite month for baseball’s most storied franchise, the Yankees.
They won the World Series last year, making miracles along the way. This year, the Yankees might not be the best team, but they’re trying again.
Perhaps too hard. In fact, if the Yankees don’t have another parade, it probably will be because they had anxiety attacks.
You see, George Steinbrenner has extended to his athletes a 24-karat carrot. The principal owner hinted that if the Yankees repeat, he might take a step back at age 70, go to his hammock in Tampa, and count his money. Or his managers.
Little wonder then why the Yankees were perspiring, breathing heavily, and squeezing the sawdust out of their bats Thursday night while losing 7-5 to the Cleveland Indians. The defending champions are clearly over-motivated by their boss’ offer of peace and quiet in exchange for a second consecutive title.
The Yankees stormed from five runs behind in the opener of this American League Division Series to solve ancient Orel Hershiser and that was one small step toward the deportation of King George, the serial meddler.
But in Game 2, the Yankees blew a 3-0 lead against Jaret Wright, a 21-year-old prodigy. And when last seen, Steinbrenner was pacing outside his executive suite, seemingly several tantrums away from voluntarily vanishing.
Mind you, win or lose the World Series, Steinbrenner won’t sell. He would perform an even more impossible act. He would remain in charge but convert to an absentee owner, a benign despot. From fingers in every department to hands off. He doesn’t have an ulcer, but he’s a carrier. He practices what he preaches, Creative Tension 101.
Thursday night’s game itself was fairly taut. Wright, a right hander who throws fire, walked three men in the first; all three scored. Generally that would be enough for Andy Pettitte, the Yankees’ estimable left hander.
But he allowed the Indians to score unfashionably late, seven runs in separate rallies, all with two out. Pettitte’s teammates, hyper over the prospect of Steinbrenner gone fishin’, also were culpable. Chad Curtis, starting in left field for defensive purposes, bungled a critical play.
And this just in. David Cone, hammered in Game 1 but designated to start Game 4, went to the hospital Thursday to have his arm checked. He won’t carry Steinbrenner’s bags to the airport in November if he can’t carry the Yankees’ staff in October.
Wright, meanwhile, got stronger. Through six impressive innings, he didn’t look like a lad who began 1997 at Double A Akron. Rather, he resembled the “Roger Clemens clone” that Indians manager Mike Hargrove was talking about.
Wright, son of former major leaguer Clyde, soon will be the finest pitcher on the Indians’ soft rotation, if he isn’t already. He also is better than anyone on Cleveland’s even softer pursuers in the A.L. Central, your sleepy White Sox.
“I didn’t teach him that 99-mile-an-hour fast ball,” admitted Clyde, who once tossed a no-hitter for the California Angels. “He got it from his mother.”
More Top Picks Best Screen Settings To Reduce Eye Fatigue
The Yankees are smart, patient and dangerous hitters, but even they went winless this season against power pitchers Clemens, Pedro Martinez of Montreal and Curt Schilling of Philadelphia. Take note: the Yankees were not familiar with the latter two, nor had they faced Wright before Thursday.
The Yankees could see him again soon, unless Steinbrenner fires them all before they retire him.